Numerous hypotheses have been proposed regarding causes of alopecia and hair loss. These hypotheses include, for example, dysfunction of male hormones secreted from hair roots and organs (e.g., sebaceous glands), reduction in the amount of blood flowing into hair follicles, excessive sebum secretion, formation of peroxides, abnormality of the state of the scalp due to the proliferation of bacteria, hereditary factors, and aging. However, despite the gradual increase in the number of people who suffer from hair loss and the decrease in the age of alopecia patients, the precise mechanism of hair loss still remains unknown.
Normally, humans have more than 1.3 million hairs in the body and more than 100,000 hairs on the head. Each hair undergoes different stages of a growth cycle consisting of anagen, catagen and telogen phases. “Hair loss” refers to the state in which, due to certain causes, the number of hairs is zero or significantly low when compared to the normal state. Hair loss can be categorized into telogen effluvium and anagen effluvium; the former is a general phenomenon wherein hairs fall off in the telogen phase, while the latter is an abnormal hair loss phenomenon generally referred to as alopecia. Alopecia relates to a state in which the telogen phase is relatively long and the anagen phase is relatively short. When the telogen phase is lengthened, the revitalization of hair is difficult.
No effective treatment for alopecia is known. Traditional treatments include the use of proper tools (e.g., brushes) to apply physical stimuli to the head, or therapeutic compounds to remove or attenuate the above-mentioned causes of alopecia. For instance, based on the hypothesis that hormones are associated with the treatment of alopecia, preparations comprising female hormones as active ingredients have been developed. However, these hormone preparations were reported to be ineffective for alopecia and to cause skin inflammation and other side effects due to the administration of hormones. The use of the hormone preparations is currently not allowed.
In recent years, minoxidil, which is commercially available from Upjohn Company, U.S.A. and preparations (Crinos, Co., Italy) comprising trichosaccharide as an active ingredient have been introduced into the market. However, these preparations have shown no distinct effect on hair loss and caused side effects in terms of the stability in the human body.
Most hair restorers developed hitherto use chemical substances and temporarily promote the circulation of blood to expand capillary vessels, thus stimulating hair roots. Accordingly, conventional hair restorers provide temporary relief for hair loss and are only effective for hair loss induced by excessively secreted sebum.
In addition, various methods have been developed to prevent or treat hair loss by revitalizing hair follicles or controlling the mechanism of antioxidants. The revitalization of hair follicles is achieved by activating hair follicles by immune enhancement to supply saccharides as nutrients to the hair follicles. According to these methods, however, newborn hair does not have an original form, but is temporarily formed by cell division and stimuli, resulting in shortened life of the hair.
Considering that over $3.5 billion is spent in the United States alone on treatments of hair loss, research on developing a solution to the aforementioned problems continues. Although many hair restorers have been proposed to prevent and treat hair loss, no hair restorer has yet to succeed in overcoming these problems.
Citation or identification of any document in this application is not an admission that such document is available as prior art to the present invention.